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The Inside Scoop on Traveling with Guy (yes, that guy) Kawasaki

Wonder what it’s like to be an A-lister? Me too! I previously wrote about a trip to New York City to meet Arianna Huffington at The Huffington Post in Being Guy Kawasaki’s +1 for the Dayand people loved hearing about it. Come along with me and I’ll share some of the details of my month traveling with Guy Kawasaki. We went on three trips to traveling to six different countries in South America for the Moto X phone launch for Motorola. We went to Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Colombia. These trips were sponsored by Motorola for the Moto Xlaunch but the stories are all mine.

We had big events in each city planned, each was unique and special in their own way. Guy gave one and sometimes two speeches per city and we covered the events thoroughly through social media. It was really fun to catch the vibe of the influential bloggers and journalists who attended the events. They were all really excited to meet Guy and hear him speak. He’s very popular in South America!

Meeting a famous person

Guy was recognized in the airport in Chile by a young woman who heard him speak in California. He’s recognized all the time but many people are afraid to say something. They do a double take and whisper to the person with them. If I see it, I stop Guy so he can say hi. He’s always happy to meet people who’ve read his books or enjoy his social media.

Tip for when you meet Guy (or another celeb) say “Hello, my name is Suzi and I loved your book Enchantment (or your favorite book) or that you follow him on Google+ or Twitter. Many people say “Guy, I saw you speak in Blah City in 2010.” It’s a conversation stopper. Just be yourself and say hello. He’s really, really friendly and will take a photo with you. He’s awesome like that.

That being said, Guy always has to be on and needs to be nice to everyone because there are always people watching and taking pictures. It’s kind of odd to get used to. I found pictures around on social media that people took of us talking or working. It was no big deal but it’s a lot of pressure when you think about it.

We were sitting on a plane after boarding and young man got on and said hello to Guy. Then he made a quick pitch about his start-up. Guy was very nice and gave him his email address to send information to him. He doesn’t have time where he is out of the public eye. When he’s in the states, he’s recognized even more!

Be a baker, not an eater

One of the benefits for me on the trip was that I got to hear Guy speak, a lot! One of the main points in his Enchantment speech is that you should be a baker, not an eater which means that you should have an abundance mentality. Think about baking more pies and cupcakes and sharing generously. People who are eaters think only about themselves and think that there is an end to the pies. Bakers know that they can make more pie. Eater think if they win, you lose, and if you win, they lose. Bakers think that everyone can win.

Guy definitely practices this mentality and so do I. This is me, baking BIG!

“What I lack in talent, I compensate with my willingness to grind it out. That’s the secret of my life.” Guy Kawasaki

This I can tell you first hand is true. Although Guy is being modest about his lack of talent, he does give his all on anything that he commits to. We went above and beyond on every aspect of the Motorola events. Guy was there to give a speech and many people would have given the speech, then left. We took photos before and after each event trying to get a photo with each person. Guy processed all the photos, 250 and more per event, added a watermark to the photos and shared them all on Google+. He had meetings with important people in different cities, did every interview that was requested (which was probably a hundred or more we didn’t count) as well as charmed each and every person he met. It was impressive. Then we’d go to the next city and do it again.

Having a very strong work ethic is definitely one of the keys to being Guy Kawasaki.

I asked my Facebook friends to throw out some questions about what they’d like to know about the trip. These people saw many of the posts that I shared through the month and were so supportive. I really appreciate them!

How is your day different when you’re traveling?

This is totally different for me since I usually work at home. I’m used to a quiet work environment and steady WiFi. I had a lot of challenges to get the social media done that I needed to do: no WiFi, a crowded party atmosphere, pushing people. I got it all done though! We were in two states of being the whole time: with WiFi or looking for WiFi.

#1 tip for inviting Guy & Peg to your event: have great WiFi for them! One city had this WiFi network for us. This made me very happy, I had to give it back though.

Also, I live on the East Coast and Guy is on the West Coast so we don’t work together on a regular basis face-to-face. We are both 100% ourselves all the time, online and in person, so it’s just like we do work together face-to-face. We are the modern, virtual work team.

Prior to popular belief, travel isn’t really glamorous, it’s a lot of waiting in line and waiting for your flight. The anticipation for the next destination makes it fun.

What is the one thing besides your phone you take with you everywhere?

Chargers for my phone, my laptop and my camera. And, of course, my passport. It’s fun to travel with someone who understands your need to charge gadgets at every possible chance, to get online to check things and post updates. Between the two of us, we had a large amount of chargers and adapters and we used every single one.

At all times we had with us: two Mac laptops, four Moto X phones, two Motorola power packs and two Nexus 7’s. Fun fact: I got my Motorola power pack as a Klout perk.

Does Guy have a ton of luggage or is he a light packer?

He’s a light packer and doesn’t zip any pockets on his bags. I spent a lot of time zipping up pockets on his camera/tech bag. He might leave a trail of chargers and cords when I’m not with him. If you’re at an event and you find one, it may be his.

What he reads and how he reads it (e.g. real book, tablet, etc.)

Typically, Guy reads via Kindle on his Nexus 7 although on this trip he had a book that his wife purchased for his birthday. He likes to read mystery thrillers by Barry Eisler, Lee Child, and David Baldacci, to name a few.

What was your favorite moment when you traveled together?

We took tons of photos! Guy’s helping me learn how to shoot with my new Fuji x100s and learn Lightroom, he’s an amazing photographer. I’m really awesome when I remember to take the lens cap off. (yes, I really did that)

The NOI hotel Santiago, Chile was gorgeous. On a whim. we went to the roof and found an amazing view! Guy created this video using his MotoX and his favorite technique: slow-motion video. Santiago, Chile is a beautiful city!

When we were in Buenos Aires, Argentina we went on a street art tour with Buenos Aires Street Art and took tons of photos. Our guide was Matt Fox-Tucker who co-authored Textura Dos: Buenos Aires Street Art. An extra cool moment was finding the Steve Jobs tribute. These lovely flowers were given to me by awesome Motorola Argentina team after the event was over. This is one of my favorite photos from the trip.

What was your least favorite moment?

We landed at a new country at about midnight one night, after being picked up at 8:30 am that morning for an event, and I was stopped at Immigration for an entry fee. All the tax booths were closed and the immigration person that I went to didn’t allow me in although Guy and everyone else on the flight went through. I spent about thirty minutes looking for somewhere that I could pay the fee. No one could help me and all the lights were out in all the booths.

Finally, I decided to go through the line again and prayed that I would get a different agent. The only thing worse than waiting to go through Immigration in the middle of the night is doing it twice. After about fifteen minutes of waiting in line, the number came up and I got a different agent who stamped my passport and I was through. This was pretty stressful, I was tired and my bags were heavy but it ended well.

What was the funniest thing that happened?

Guy would probably say my least favorite thing was the funniest.

We took photos everywhere! This is a selfie with my new friend Enrique Vargas del Campo, he’s a Googler I met in Santiago. It’s hard to nail down the funniest thing since Guy and I both find things pretty darned entertaining and laugh a lot.

One time I posted on my Facebook page and it had a typo on it which I didn’t see for a few hours because we were on a plane and it is was something dirty. I saw it hours later in line at Immigration late at night and went into a loud fit of laughter trying to explain it to Guy. The comment thread was hysterical. Do you ever start laughing so hard you can’t stop? It was one of those for me. I’m sure the people around us thought we were crazy.

Also, riding down the escalator in the airport and hearing someone singing Macklemore’s Thiftshop, turning and seeing it was Guy was pretty entertaining. He’s good too!

You were treated like Royalty. What was the high point of the trip and FAVORITE swag?

The high point for me was how well all the social media that I planned went. The #MotoX hashtag trended each day on the event for all six cities and for one whole week when we had three cities together. That made me really proud and happy that I was able to do a good job for Motorola and, of course, for Guy. The travel, hotels and food were amazing but succeeding at the job I was hired to do makes me the happiest. It was really a first class trip, I felt like a movie star a few times.

One fun thing was when a Google+ follower of mine came up and introduced himself to me in Mexico City. That was pretty awesome. So, I guess I was recognized in Mexico City! Meeting all the wonderful people that worked for Motorola in Latin America was lovely too. They made me feel like part of their team and keep talking Spanish to me which I don’t really understand but they repeated it in English for me.

One leg of the trip we were traveling Global First Class which is uber fancy! They had a secret lounge behind the other really nice lounge with champagne and shrimp cocktail. It was so awesome. They came to get us when the flight was boarding and let us in through a special door that took you to the plane without waiting in the ticket line to board. This must be how the Hollywood stars travel.

Favorite swag.

I like my sign from the airport with my name on it. It was the first time I ever had a driver waiting for me with a car and my name. It was funny because the sign said Peggy Lyn instead of Peg Fitzpatrick. Only my mom calls me that.

The whole trip was really swagged out since Guy is treated very well when he travels, I got the +1 carry over affect which is very nice. Upgrades to first class, arrangements for good seats, eating at great restaurants, those things all happened. Let’s just say, it’s good to travel with Guy.

I am curious about when you are on such a brutal road trip, how do you stay productive?

We did have a very crazy schedule and sometimes were in a city less than twenty-four hours! It was truly jet-setting. We both are very focused on work so when we left an event, we would be processing that event and planning for the next. I did a lot of prep work prior to arriving at each city and maintained all of our regular social media as well as the event posts.

We work very well as a team and got a routine down for what things we needed to do, wanted to do and just worked our butts off!

Guy is really good at working out everyday when he travels. The first question he asks at check in is how is the gym and if the gym is open 24 hours.

Where are you headed next?

The next event will be either at BlogHer Pro for a Motorola party in California or we have a really awesome day planned on October 28th.

If you want to see more photos, we both posted on Instagram and all over social media. Peg’s Instagram Guy’s Instagram

That’s my insider’s peek! What would you like to know? Let’s hear it in the comments!

Meet Peg Fitzpatrick!

Peg Fitzpatrick is a popular social media speaker, trainer and, social media author. She's co-author of The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users. Covering all the major social media platforms, she frequently hears “you’re everywhere!” She’s passionate about social media and inspiring others to be their best. Read More…

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